The utility of lightweight, removable safety barriers for restricting the movement of small children or animals is well-known. Such barriers are often temporarily installed at the top or bottoms of stairways or in hallways, for the safety, and/or to restrict the movement, of infants or animals.
Particularly designed for the safety of infants, a common form of barrier has been an expansion gate which comprises an expandable network of criss-crossing rungs, the expansion gate being capable of opening or closing in accordion-like fashion. The gate is usually screwed into a side frame or wall at one side and may be fastenable to a clip or locking means, when expanded across the passageway, on the other side. Such a gate has proven difficult to open or close with a child in one's arms. In many instances, such as in rental situations, it is not permitted to place screw holes in walls or door frames. Moreover such an expansion gate is capable of pinching fingers and hands upon retraction and, under pressure, can bow out at the bottom allowing a child to slip under it.
A more solid and stable type of safety barrier for a passageway, particularly adapted for small children, is a pressure lock gate which comprises a pair of joined, mutually axially slidable frames, which can be expanded into open position blocking a passageway, with the edges of the gate bearing against the walls of the passageway. When in expanded position, a pair of centrally positioned rods one joined to each sliding frame member, clip into engagement with each other to maintain the gate in that expanded position with its sides bearing against the vertical side walls. Such a safety barrier does not permit ready opening or closing by a person carrying a child: the barrier must somehow be climbed over instead. Of course, this creates obvious difficulties if the the barrier is approached up a stairway or at the top of a stairway when a person is on the way down.
Because the gate frame is square, if the side walls are not completely vertical, the edges of the barrier bear unevenly against the side wall resulting in an insecure positioning of the barrier in the passageway. Even when securely positioned, the barrier of this construction tends to pop out of position, for example when rammed by a child in a walker.
Canadian Pat. No. 577,220 of Vickers-Willis issued June 9, 1959 describes an infant gate for an doorway, which gate has a frame with two complementary co-extensive sections connected for relative axial slidable movement. As in the case of the pressure lock gate, when the co-extensive sections are expanded to open position to block the doorway, their sides bear against the frame of the doorway thereby restricting dislodgement of the barrier from that position. Bolts with wing nuts extend between the two sections and are used to secure the sections in position. Again, however, as with the pressure lock gate, this gate is intended solely as a barrier and no provision is made for its temporary opening to permit passage of a person. Stepping over such a gate is difficult, for example while carrying a child. Also, as with a pressure lock gate, if the side frames of the doorway are not vertical, the sides of the gate fit unevenly resulting in an insecure placement of the gate.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a safety barrier for a hallway or doorway, to restrict the movement of infants or animals, which barrier will permit ready passage of an adult while it remains in position. It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a safety barrier which can be used in a rental situation, not requiring screw holes or the like in a side wall for its support.